General Legislative Session - Regular Meeting

Morning, everyone. We'll call to order the Snohomish County Council for our general legislative session. Today is Wednesday, July 1st, 2026 at 9 a.m. We're meeting in the Jackson boardroom and also remotely. I'll read the script for public comment and then our clerks will take roll. We'll take public comment beginning in person and then remotely on Zoom. Click on the hand icon to raise your hand. If you're calling in by phone, press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak and please start your comment with your name and city of residence. Next is roll call.

Chair Dunn? Here. Vice Chair Lowe?

Present.

Council Member Neering?

Here.

Council Member Mead?

Here.

Council Member Peterson?

Here.

Chair, we have five members present.

Thank you. Next is the Pledge of Allegiance, and we've asked Council Member Lowe to please lead us in the pledge. Thank you, Vice Chair Lowe. Next is public comment. Did anyone wish to provide public comment? There's no one in person. Is there anyone online? No hands raised. Okay, we'll close public comment and move on. We have resolutions. So first is Resolution 26-034.

Council considers Resolution 26-034 celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and encouraging participation in America 250 events and activities. Thank you.

Any questions or comments from council? Okay. Is there a motion?

I move approval of resolution 26-034. Second.

Been properly moved and seconded to approve resolution 26-034. Is there any additional discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the pass is 5-0. We have nothing on the consent agenda. Next is administrative matters.

I move approval of administrative matters, motion 26-258. Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded to approve administrative matters, motion 26-258. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the pass is 5-0. Next, we have action on items from committee and under Committee of the Whole. First is motion 26-230. Council considers motion 26-230.

Approving and adopting the 2025 Snohomish County Hazard Mitigation Plan.

For the record, Cynthia Foley, Council Staff, Motion 26-230 adopts the 2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan. DEM conducted a hazard and risk assessment to evaluate potential loss of life, personal injury, economic injury, and property damage resulting from local hazards. Maintaining a current and adopted plan allows Snohomish County to apply for federal disaster grant assistance. Within the year of plan adoption, participating jurisdictions are expected to complete updated hazard mitigation and access to the plan. The request is to consider Motion 26-230.

Questions from Council? Is there a motion?

I move approval of Motion 26-230. Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded to approve Motion 26-230. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes 5-0. Next, we'll hear Motion 26-249.

Council considers Motion 26-249, authorizing Snohomish County to accept and execute FAA Airport Improvement Grant at Snohomish County Airport for Runway 16R-34L Rehabilitation North Project.

For the record, Cynthia Foley, Council staff, the airport has been offered an FAA grant through the Airport Improvement Program. The grant total is $22,150,542. The grant will pay 95% of allowable costs. The grant requires a matching local contribution of 5%, not expected to exceed $1,165,818. The work to be performed includes existing pavement milling, asphalt pavement replacement, airfield lighting adjustments, and drainage improvements. The request is to consider motion 26-249. Thank you. Questions from council?

Is there a motion?

I move approval of motion 26-249. Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded to approve motion 26-249. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor please say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes 5-0. Next is ordinance 26-030.

Council considers Ordinance 26-030, imposing an additional sales and use tax of one-tenth of one percent for criminal justice purposes, providing for administration of the tax, providing for implementation and an effective date, providing for notification and reporting, and adopting a new Chapter 4.140 to Snohomish County Code. Proposed action today is to set time and date for a public hearing. Good morning, Council.

For the record, Nicole Gourley, Council Staff. RCW 8214-345 provides local jurisdictions with the authority to implement a one-tenth of one percent sales and use tax for criminal justice purposes by Council action until June 30, 2028. In order to be eligible for the tax, you may not have proposed a tax under RCW 8214-450 in the last 12 months and jurisdictions must meet the requirements for a grant program established under the Criminal Justice Training Commission here in CJTC, which are stipulated under RCW 43-101-540. That said, that very next section in RCW 82-14-345-D provides a caveat that if a jurisdiction has applied to the CJTC and receives a response that they don't meet all of the requirements, the jurisdiction may at this point pass an ordinance establishing the tax as long as they work towards correcting the deficiencies identified by the CJTC and submit necessary paperwork to come into compliance. From a timeline standpoint, jurisdictions have 180 days from the date they submit their application to the CJTC to correct those deficiencies. If a jurisdiction has not corrected them by then, the State Treasurer will be instructed to withhold $100,000 each month after the revenue starts coming in. The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office submitted their application on April 24th and received their response from the CJTC on June 8th, outlining three deficiencies. The Sheriff's Office has until October 20th to correct those deficiencies. However, in accordance with RCW 8214-345D, At this point, the county is now eligible to implement the tax. Ordinance 26-030 would implement a new one-tenth of one percent sales and use tax for criminal justice purposes by adding a new section to the code, Chapter 4.140. The ordinance requires the funds generated under the tax to be used first to maintain or increase staffing levels adopted in the budget for the Sheriff's Office Corrections Office of Public Defense, Prosecuting Attorney, Clerk, District Court, and Superior Court. Any funds not used for that purpose may be used for other criminal justice purposes as defined in RCW 8214-345-5A. Collection of the tax would begin January 1, 2027, and the estimated annual revenue is $23.8 million. I will note that there is a summary of the tax and its requirements as well as a sectional analysis of the ordinance in the staff report provided. With that, today's request is for Council to set time and date for a public hearing, and additionally, there could be another opportunity for additional discussion and comment if Council desires by adding a discussion item to the July 22nd GLS agenda.

Thank you. Questions from Council? Councilmember Neering?

Yeah, thank you, Chair. A couple of questions. The first is... These funds, unlike the one that went to the ballot, would not go to cities, correct? This would all come to the county? Correct. But city taxpayers will be taxed if it passes?

Anyone shopping, yes.

Within cities and within an unincorporated county?

It applies everywhere, yeah.

And then the other question, is it possible to send this to the ballot?

technically you can if not it is not possible to send it to the ballot if you want the vote to take place prior to implementation and based on the proposed timeline if you want to adjust things in terms of when the tax goes into effect if you want to slide that out to april i'd have to do some there's a couple competing timelines that we have to fight with dor noticing um

So with the proposed timeline, it wouldn't work. But if we change the timeline, this could be sent to the ballot.

Correct. As a non-binding advisory vote, most likely. Correct.

Okay. And then just a comment on the timing. I'm going to be out of the country for a family reunion and a wedding on the 12th. And so if it's possible, I would prefer that this gets scheduled for a different date. Or if we schedule it today and then maybe look at timelines to see if it's possible to move, I will be able to participate remotely. And so I'll be participating in the meeting either way, but would prefer to be in person. So just wanted to note that and see if it's possible to take a look at other dates.

we also added uh the option of having as a discussion item on july 22nd will you be in town would that work for council okay because that that way would if there's amendments to consider uh we could have amendments for that discussion um in time yeah that's great thank you okay councilmember mead thank you

So my question is just about the timeline because I've stated this before and maybe more publicly now that I am uncomfortable doing this outside of the broader budget discussion. August 12th is a couple months before, or at least one month before we're going to get anything from the executive's office for the budget. So for the timeline for when we're, the implementation, when we can collect, what's the cutoff? Is it August 12th? Is that why we picked this date?

To keep with the collection date of January 1st, 2027, council would need to pass an ordinance and the executive would need to submit it to the State Department of Revenue by October 16th.

Okay. So we have until October 16th, you said? Or maybe first or second week of October to give them time?

Pull up quickly the calendar because our meeting schedules don't always align with deadlines. Um, so I would say you, your last date for passage would be October 14th because that's the last committee meeting before the 16th deadline.

Okay. And we will pay back on that for a sec. Sure. So doesn't the executive have to have like 10 days to sign after? So wouldn't there need to be 10 days before that? So the executive would have time to decide if he's signing or not, or is that something different?

they have up to 10 days to sign um that would be a question that we could direct to the executive's office on there have been days where turnaround is same day because the ordinance needs it so it doesn't have to take 10 days it may take up to 10 days so if you want to build that in um October 6th

Council Member May, did you have other questions?

Yeah, thank you. So either way, both of those dates are still before we will have considered the budget.

You will have the budget. You will not have made a vote on the budget.

Because we plan to take votes on the budget more like in November.

In November, yes.

What happens if we wait until November to pass this? What's the earliest we can collect revenue?

I would have – well, April 1st would be the earliest you would be able to collect revenue.

Okay, so it's not – Just 75 days after we pass, no matter when we pass, there are strict collection dates. January, it sounds like, April, and then there's one more later in the year.

Yeah, I believe it's June or July.

Okay, so if we waited to consider this with the budget, it's a four-month delay in collection. January versus April. Okay, thank you.

So there are jurisdictions that are considering taking this tax on their own. What happens if a jurisdiction imposes this tax before we vote on it?

So unlike the other one, this is stackable. So if a jurisdiction, say, I think Everett has been approved or at least applied for approval, say Everett implements it, then

and the county implements it then you would have a two tenths of a percent but that tenth of a percent you know split between so we've given um so we're we've given a lot of lead time to allow time for discussion and time for amendments uh it sounds like there's a willingness to have this as a discussion item for the 22nd No objection. So we'll add that to the agenda as a discussion item with the goal of any amendments in time for that discussion. Obviously, we can make amendments up to the day we pass it, but it would be helpful to have an idea or drafts for those. I would like to add to the reporting section. So right now there's a requirement for an annual reporting to the Association of Counties in addition to Department of Revenue. I would like to see a forward facing requirement that's provided to the public. So I'll be proposing an amendment related to that. Any other questions or discussion? Are we comfortable moving forward with setting time and date? We could also set time and date next week if we need to have more discussion around dates. Councilmember Neering?

yeah if um i mean obviously up to the will of the council i would prefer us wait till next week just to check on what dates are possible but um again i'll participate on that august date but it would be remotely if it stays on that date so if if waiting a week to schedule it allows us time to see if it would work or not then i'd prefer that but but up to council

And I would just note that as long as you guys are okay with me being remote that day, I'm technically on leave, but I will happily pop on for that. The 22nd or August? Next week to set time and date so I can be available for questions or anything you guys need.

Other comments? No? Okay. So thoughts on setting time and date right now or waiting until next week? It sounds like. Do we need more information? Do you agree with the timeline for August, or are you trying to find a later date, Council Member Meade?

Well, I'll speak for myself. It sounds like what Council Member Neary was saying is he would hope that we would wait so he can be in person. That's a different consideration than what I'm thinking of. But for me, being uncomfortable doing this outside of the budget process doesn't change whether we do it in August 12th or August 19th or whatever. It might help for me to have seen the budget come back from the executive's office or it's transmitted to us so we can see what they've built out, how they plan to spend it. Because to me, when I look at the policy, It's the policy. I'm not looking at amending the actual policy itself. My consideration in a giant revenue lever like this is how it operates within the context of the entire budget. We don't have that yet. So that's why I wasn't going to say this until after the meeting. We was going to talk with the chief of staff. But it's going to be really difficult for me to get to yes on this without knowing what the rest of the budget looks like. This is a huge revenue, almost $24 million. How it's being spent, how it's proposed to be spent within the context of the budget is what's going to help me get there or not. August 12th, we won't have that information. It's going to be hard for me to vote for this outside of the budget in general. But at least having seen the executive's budget and being able to then see it in that context will help me. So I don't know what date that is. Do we already have the date that we're supposed to be getting it from the executive? Is it the first or second week of September?

I believe it's the first, but I might. It's the fourth.

September 4th?

Correct. The first Friday. The executive's office noted that that was tentative at this point.

So I'm one council member, but my consideration on this is it's really heavily reliant on what the budget looks like, and we don't have that yet. So I don't know if it sounds like we have time. That was my initial question. Do we have time to wait until it sounds like we have until October to vote on this?

that gives us at least the time to have seen and spent a couple of weeks digesting what the executive's budget proposal looks like so that's my consideration okay so my recommendation is going to be to continue this discussion to next week to set time and date when we have a better understanding of some timing issues and deadlines from the state and departments so uh do the clerks need a motion to continue this item okay

I move to continue ordinance 26-030 to July 8th at the hour of 9 a.m. Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded to continue ordinance 26-030 to July 8th. Is there any additional discussion? All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes unanimously. That concludes our agenda, and we have no public hearing today. So council is adjourned.